Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education AGRICULTURE EDUCATION AND TRAINING (AET) SYSTEM IN NEPAL: PRESENT STATUS, CHALLENGES AND FUTURE PRIORITIES Sulav Paudel, Thomas Gill & Edwin Rajotte, The Pennsylvania State University September 2013 USAID/BFS/ARP-Funded Project Award Number: AID-OAA-L-12-00002 1 Contents Executive Summary ____________________________________________________________ 4 Introduction _________________________________________________________________ 5 Background to Nepal _______________________________________________________________ 5 Focus of this report: Nepal, innovATE and AET systems ____________________________________ 5 Data collection methodologies ________________________________________________________ 6 History of education in Nepal ____________________________________________________ 6 History of agricultural education ______________________________________________________ 7 Structure of the Nepalese education system ________________________________________ 8 Structure of school education in Nepal _________________________________________________ 8 Structure of higher education in Nepal _________________________________________________ 9 The current status of Agricultural Training and Education Institutes in Nepal _____________ 10 Higher education programs in agriculture _________________________________________ 10 Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) ______________________________________________ 11 Shared between AFU and Tribhuvan University (TU) ______________________________________ 11 Tribhuvan University (TU) ___________________________________________________________ 13 Purbanchal University (PU) __________________________________________________________ 14 Technical schools and polytechnics ___________________________________________________ 15 Agricultural sector overview and workforce profile __________________________________ 15 ATE system in Nepal: SWOT analysis _____________________________________________ 17 Strengths ________________________________________________________________________ 17 Weaknesses _____________________________________________________________________ 17 Opportunities ____________________________________________________________________ 20 Threats _________________________________________________________________________ 21 Next Steps __________________________________________________________________ 22 Recommended action plan _____________________________________________________ 25 References _________________________________________________________________ 27 List of interviewees ___________________________________________________________ 28 2 Tables and Figures ___________________________________________________________ 29 APPENDIX 1: Focus group report ________________________________________________ 34 3 Executive Summary This report examines the present status of agricultural education and training (AET) in Nepal and draws attention towards the current challenges and problems. It specifically looks at the agricultural education structure, analyzes the pressing problems and offers several recommendations for next steps to build capacity of the AET system in Nepal. The report argues in a rapidly changing social and natural environment, strong AET is a pre- requisite for social and economic development in a country like Nepal. Here we emphasize the importance of improving AET systems by strengthening the innovative capabilities of AET organizations and professionals, changing organizational cultures, behaviors, and incentives, and building innovation networks and linkages. This country assessment is based on a fact-finding operation searching for adequate information about the current agricultural training and education system in Nepal. The accumulation of the facts involved gathering of data through both primary and secondary sources, including interviews, a focus group and literature review. Key reforms recommended include improving the infrastructure of AET organizations and aligning the mandates with societal and country needs, improving student/public impressions of agriculture through effective awareness programs, promoting practical programs that are more strategically attuned to the different needs of society, motivating young agricultural scientists to stay in Nepal through upgrading facilities and offering attractive packages, and improving the institutional capacity linkages between AET and diverse user communities, knowledge sources and private industries. In the final section, the study also puts forward recommended next steps for potential involvement in Nepal by innovATE, a new USAID-funded mechanism for building capacity in AET in developing countries. 4 Introduction Background to Nepal Nepal is a diverse kingdom including Mt. Everest, artistic monuments, exotic wildlife, and distinctive cultures. It covers an area of 147,181 square kilometers, landlocked between two giants, India and China, and dominated by the Himalayas. Nepal extends from the highest peak of the world to the plains of Terai (elevation ranges from 66m to 8848m above sea level), thus there exists a variety of climatic conditions ranging from the tropical heat of the Terai plains to the freezing cold of the high Himalayas. With a population of 28 million (MHP, 2011), Nepal also consists of highly diverse ethnic groups of people living together as with their own languages and cultures. Nepali, written in the Devanagari script, is the national language but there are various other languages such as Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Tamang, etc. that are spoken by a large part of the population. English and Hindi are widely understood in the urban centers and areas frequented by tourists. The economy of Nepal is largely dominated by agriculture. With 60% of its population dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and with agriculture contributing a third of the total national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), agriculture is regarded as one of prioritized sectors for the economic development of the country (ADS, 2012). Besides agriculture, tourism, carpets, and garments are major industries. Various factors such as political upheaval, social unrest, landlocked geography, rugged terrain, lack of natural resources, poor infrastructure, and lack of access to education have directly contributed to Nepal’s underdevelopment. Focus of this report: Nepal, innovATE and AET systems This report was commissioned by the 'Innovation for Agriculture Training and Education (innovATE)' program. ‘innovATE’ is a recently-awarded 5-year USAID program led by Virginia Tech University, with the primary goal of strengthening training and education systems to improve the performance of the agricultural sector in developing countries around the world. Penn State, as one of the consortium partners on innovATE, has the responsibilities to lead innovATE activities in Asia, including Nepal, one of the US government’s focus countries under the ‘Feed the Future’ initiative. As a part of the innovATE program, this initial country assessment was conducted to review the current status of agricultural education and training (AET) in Nepal. This report encompasses the current strengths and challenges facing the AET system in Nepal, as well as potential next steps for strengthening these systems and ways for leveraging innoVATE program involvement. 5 Data collection methodologies The accumulation of the facts involved gathering of data through both primary and secondary sources. One formal focus group discussion was carried out with Nepalese graduate students currently studying at Penn State and faculty members who have experience working in Nepal. Consultations with governmental and non-governmental staff, agriculture students and faculty members at other institutions were also carried out to acquire existing views and information regarding AET in Nepal. Consultations were carried out by phone, e-mail and in some cases by Skype. Meanwhile, secondary information was obtained from library resources, newspaper archives, and government, university and NGO websites. History of education in Nepal Education is one of the most well developed social services in Nepal. Though there are many things which are far from perfect, the tremendous expansion that the education system has achieved in the last few decades is highly impressive. Modern education in Nepal began with the establishment of the first school in 1853, which was restricted only for the members of the ruling families and their courtiers. Schooling for the general public began only after 1951, when a popular movement ended the autocratic Rana family regime and initiated a democratic system. Today, almost 7.4 million (CBS, 2012) are enrolled in schools and colleges. Higher education in Nepal started almost one hundred years ago. Tri-Chandra campus was established as the first higher education institution in the country affiliated to Patna University, India in 1918. In 1959, Tribhuwan University (TU) was established as the first university under the Nepali government. Following its establishment, there were many colleges established in different parts of the country under the affiliation of TU. Another governmental university, Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU), was established in 1985 and focused on promoting Sanskrit education. Two other privately-funded universities besides TU & MSU were established in the 1980s & 1990s: Kathmandu University and Pokhara University. However, until 1990, higher education development was highly restrained as the country’s